Thanksgiving in a Foreign Country

Dave and I spent our first major U.S. holiday in Ghana - Thanksgiving. For us, Thanksgiving was really just another Thursday. Michael was at our door in the morning to take Dave to work and me to the gym. Charity came to the house and worked her magic, and I was able to get a little work done without the distraction of lots of emails. I thought I would be sad, but I really wasn’t. Not that I didn’t miss my family and long for a juicy turkey and a slice of chocolate pie, because I did. But, when I woke up it was still the middle of the night in the states, and things were quiet on Facebook. And…I was preparing for my own Thanksgiving get-together here in Accra.

Michele and I hosted Thanksgiving for several expats at her and Dave’s home. They have plenty of room to entertain and a lovely backyard and pool.

We each basically made a Thanksgiving dinner and asked others to bring things to fill in the gaps. Believe me, we had plenty to eat.

I wondered where one goes for a turkey in Ghana? The first place I checked was Stellar Catering, which imports meat from South Africa. I’ve yet to get a bad piece of meat from their business, so I stopped in the week before the holiday. Right there on the front door was a sign, “Turkeys Available for Thanksgiving.” I inquired inside and was told turkeys would be delivered to the store before the big day. That should have been my first clue. Good thing I didn’t plan on one, because in the end they were delivered on Monday after Thanksgiving.

Second, I stopped in at the local Max Mart, which is one of my regular grocery stops. I have never purchased meat from Max Mart, but still thought I’d check it out. Voila! I found a big “frozen” turkey. It was being sold for something like 100 cedis ($60). I had the butcher place the turkey in my basket. I’ll give it this….it was a huge bird! I walked around the store gathering some other items, all the while looking at the turkey. He looked rather gray, and he wasn’t completely frozen. The only alternative I could see in the store was a slightly smaller turkey, completely frozen, but with most of its body outside of the plastic wrapping…obviously quite freezer burned. I called Michele to get her advice. She didn’t answer. I walked around some more and ended up at the checkout counter. I leaned over to pick up the bird….and placed it back into the basket. I returned to the butcher and handed the turkey back to him. I wasn’t going to take any chances. After all, I was responsible for feeding others safely!

On to ShopRite in my quest for a turkey. The only time I have only purchased meat from this store was for mince meat (what we call hamburger). That was the meat that literally smelled like crap when I fried it up, but what other choice did I have in Ghana in I really wanted to serve turkey? Into the store I went, and out I came with TWO turkeys from South Africa. They were actually the size of two rather large chickens, but alas, they were turkeys! They were neatly wrapped up, frozen, and in the end were quite tasty.

Michele and the kids had decorated the house in with a Thanksgiving theme, and it reminded me of the times when my sister and I would write “turkey poems” for our siblings and parents every year; i.e., “Turkey red, turkey blue, turkey says I love you.” Well…we were pretty little and obviously quite uncreative.

After a bit of a social hour and all of our guests had arrived, dinner was served. We had yummy turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, and all of the other traditional American Thanksgiving fare - green bean casserole, corn, rolls, salads, and the always present cranberry sauce. Dessert included the biggest apple pies I have ever seen!

Although Thanksgiving is an American holiday, we had visitors from all over the world! The first table included most of the adults. From left to right around the table:

• Dale - U.S.
• Steve - U.S.
• Otto - South Africa
• Julie - U.S.
• Dave - U.S.
• Ivonne - Holland
• Adrianne - Holland
• Simon - U.K.
• Ellen - Ghana

Michele not only has a big enough dining room to host all of us, she also has enough room for two tables and chairs! The fun table - beginning at the bottom (although I can’t remember all of the kids’ names!):

• Ivonne and Adrianne’s daughter
• Simon and Ellen’s daughter
• Tori
• Ivonne and Adrianne’s eldest daughter
• Michele - U.S.
• Natasha - Uzbekistan
• Me
• Stone
• Simon and Ellen’s son
• Brian (Natasha’s son)

After dinner we moved upstairs where we began entertaining each other playing Sing Star. Believe me….when you’ve had enough to drink ANYONE can sing well, even me! The Schummer kids brought out their costumes (is there anything Michele didn’t think to bring?). Adrianne showed off his musical talents, and we got a little silly. But hey! We are all stuck in Ghana, and we deserve to let a little steam off every once in while.

In the end, I felt like I still got to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family, it just happened to be my Ghanaian family this year.